1246 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 27

He then became attracted to her and began to enjoy her company. A living
entity is similarly engaged in the material world in sinful activities. These
sinful activities may be compared to King Puranjana’s hunting in the forest.

A sinful life can be counteracted by various processes of religion such as
yajna, vrata and dana—that is, the performance of sacrifices, the taking of
a vow for some religious ritual, and the giving of charity. In this way one
may become free from the reactions of sinful life and at the same time
awaken his original Krsna consciousness. By coming home, taking his bath,
eating nice foodstuffs, getting refreshed and searching out his wife, King
Purafijana came to his good consciousness in his family life. In other words,
a systematic family life as enjoined in the Vedas is better than an irre-
sponsible sinful life. If a husband and wife combine together in Krsna
consciousness and live together peacefully, that is very nice. However, if a
husband becomes too much attracted by his wife and forgets his duty in
life, the implications of materialistic life will again resume. Srila Ripa
Gosvami has therefore recommended andsaktasya visayan (Bh.r.s. 1.2.255).
Without being attached by sex, the husband and wife may live together for
the advancement of spiritual life. The husband should engage in devotional
service, and the wife should be faithful and religious according to the
Vedic injunctions. Such a combination is very good. However, if the
husband becomes too much attracted to the wife due to sex, the position
becomes very dangerous. Women in general are very much sexually inclined.
Indeed, it is said that a woman’s sex desire is nine times stronger than a man’s.
It is therefore a man’s duty to keep a woman under his control by satisfying
her, giving her ornaments, nice food and clothes, and engaging her in re-
ligious activities. Of course a woman should have a few children and in this
way not be disturbing to the man. Unfortunately, if the man becomes
attracted to the woman simply for sex enjoyment, then family life becomes
abominable.

The great politician Canakya Pandita has said: bharyd riipavati satruh—a
beautiful wife is an enemy. Of course every woman in the eyes of her
husband is very beautiful. Others may see her as not very beautiful, but the
husband, being very much attracted to her, sees her always as very beautiful.
If the husband sees the wife as very beautiful, it is to be assumed that he is
too much attracted to her. This attraction is the attraction of sex. The
whole world is captivated by the two modes of material nature rajo-guna
and tamo-guna, passion and ignorance. Generally women are very much
passionate and are less intelligent; therefore somehow or other a man should
not be under the control of their passion and ignorance. However, by
performing bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, a man can be raised to the
